When the subject of creativity comes up, it is most often associated with the arts. Creative people are artists, and most of us do not consider ourselves to be artists. Many people lose their personality when trying to fit in at work. Just as many lose their creativity, becoming afraid to make mistakes or conforming to the old adage “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” They believe it is better to fit in than to stand out.
The problem is today’s world requires, perhaps even demands, a creative approach. We crave differentiation. Sameness is ignored. The norm becomes white noise. There are many reasons why creativity is more important than ever. People’s attention spans are shorter than ever before. The Internet bombards us with information and marketing outreach. Workers grow tired of a routine workplace more easily than in the past. It seems we’ve heard and seen it all before. A differentiated approach now stands out more quickly because our minds have become numb to the same old same old.
I found in my career that being creative and innovative in strategic ways accelerated my success and my opportunities. When I coach executives and sales people, I emphasize ways in which they can be more creative themselves, with their teams and in their approach to their prospects and customers. Here are three groups where creativity should be applied, with suggestions for each.
- Individual Contributors- People hire individual contributors to play a role, but they also want to know what else do you bring to the table? As you go about completing your tasks, always be thinking “how else could we solve this problem?” Don’t place restrictions or limitations on your ideas. Perhaps a creative idea won’t work, but that idea leads to another that will. Also, keep a note pad handy (or your Notes app on your phone) and jot down ideas or observations that come to you that might be related to your work. You never know when one of those may be applied. Finally, don’t be afraid to make mistakes or get “no” for an answer. Mistakes are how we learn. Great inventors will always say it was the mistakes that led to their greatest inventions. If you work for an organization that punishes mistakes, I suggest you brush up your resume and find another place to work.
- Leaders- There are leaders and there are managers of the business. Managers do not seek out creativity because to be creative means to take risks, and they are risk-averse people. To try different things might result in failure. Leaders like creative approaches, but I find they sometimes fail to prioritize them. As a leader, have regularly-scheduled “think tank” sessions with your team, with the sole goal being to generate new ideas. Provide rewards for ideas proposed (and not just good ideas, but any ideas). Have a whiteboard and colored markers, and have people sketch out or draw graphical examples of their ideas. Be creative in how you run your meetings. Have different people lead them, and utilize different venues like going outside, having a walking meeting on a Greenway path or meet at a local bakery or coffee shop. Have “no-slides” meetings so people have to say what’s on their minds, not what’s on the slides (Steve Jobs required no-slides meetings). Here’s another idea. During performance reviews (I prefer they be called Success Plans), ask the team member “how could you do your job differently?”, and have that open-minded discussion.
- Market Outreach- Creativity in marketing should be at the top of the priority list, but for some reason it often is not. Most marketing approaches are bland, boring and dull. As marketing guru Seth Godin suggests, you have to be the purple cow in a field of brown cows to get people’s attention. As you consider promoting your product or service out to your target market, put yourself in the place of your target customer and think about what might get your attention regarding a key problem you may have. Get away from traditional “marketing-speak” and be bold. Look at how your competitors promote themselves, and then create ways in which your organization can stand out from them. Explore how other companies in different industries promote themselves. Tell a story about your offering and appeal to the emotional side of your audience. Also, work with your sales or business development team to create and deliver sales presentations that get attention and not simply regurgitate what’s on your web site.
I suggest you read any (all) of these great books on creativity: “Creativity: The Prefect Crime” by Philippe Petite. “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert. “The Creative Act: A Way of Being” by Rick Rubin. Find ways to foster and support creative thinking, and make your workplace environment not only more interesting, but also more successful.
By: John Lowe, Executive Faculty, Forbes Coaches Council Member
